ER: A New Beginning
by garbygal
Summary: After County General is destroyed in a fire, they start all overr with some old faces and some new characters.


Chapter One

Kasey Williams walked slowly into the conference center. She had already been doing this for a long time despite her young age, yet every time she started a new job the shyness and lack of confidence seemed to work their way right back in. The truth was she really hoped that this would be her final time at a venue like this, meeting new collages. She hoped she would do this job until she retired.

Checking her coat in the noisy lobby, Kasey tried to spot the sign marking which room her meeting would be in. She wasn't sure how one conference center could have so many different events at one time- but either way it was making it hard to find her gathering. "Anything I can help you find?" a gravelly voice caused her to turn around quickly.

Next to her stood a young man, probably a little older than her. His hair was spiked and a thick leather band held his watch on his wrist- giving a rocker kind of feel. The cleanly trimmed goatee made her wonder if he was another doctor. "I'm looking for the County General get together. She smiled kindly to him.

"Really?" his eyebrows danced in surprise. "I'm Ray Barnett- Dr. Ray Barnett. I'm here for the County General function too."

Kasey had been right- he was another doctor. "I'm Dr. Kasey Williams, MD and PhD." She introduced herself, holding out her hand.

Gently he shook her hand, then asked, "MD and PhD?"

Kasey nodded. "I know. It's a lot and it sounds pretentious, but it's true. I'm just a very curious person."

Nodding acknowledgement, Ray replied, "You must be very curious. So what did you get hired at County for"

Scratching her throat nervously, Kasey told him, "I'm going to be a general surgeon. You?"

"Well, I've made arrangements to work part-time in physical therapy and part-time in emergency medicine."

For some reason Ray didn't strike Kasey as very much the rehab type, at least not from her experience. "Rehab?" she questioned.

Without a word the young man lifted his suit pants to reveal a pair of carbon fiber prosthetics. Kasey was surprised; she hadn't noticed it before with how thin his legs were. "I got hit by a truck some years ago while working at the old County. After I recovered, I wanted to help others, so I trained in rehab. Just recently I finished my ER residency so I can practice in that area too."

"Impressive" Kasey figured he had been through a long road since the accident, so it was that much more impressive he had completed both specialties.

"I think we are here." Ray announced, gesturing into one of the locations ballrooms.

"Thanks." Kasey smiled, looking nervously at the large ballroom but stayed towards the very outside of the room.

Considering everyone from the "new" County General was there, it was a pretty big party. It had been someone's bright idea to introduce everyone through this party, even though many of them had worked at County previously. It had been three years since the original County General had closed down after a fire nearly gutted the place. For budget reasons it remained closed for a year before the effect was too severe for the city and they voted to rebuild. They knocked the old facility down and made a new one. Then they hired the new doctors and in a week they would be opening the new facility. "Hi." Someone greeted her enthusiastically. She looked up and was face-to-face with another young doctor. "I'm John Carter."

Kasey had actually heard of this doctor before. He was very famous for having spent so many years at County. "Kasey Williams." She introduced herself.

"Surgery, right?" he asked her with a sip of his punch.

She nodded. "General surgery."

"We may be seeing a lot of each other. I'm in the ER; I'm the head of the ER actually." He explained.

"Nice to finally put a name with the face." Kasey smiled.

"You too." He replied. "I've heard a lot about you."

Kasey was definitely surprised. John Carter was a legend in the ER field. She was nothing that famous in the surgery field. "I'm not that well known."

Carter smiled at her. "Yes you are. It's not very often that someone graduates medical school at 20."

Kasey had been hoping she wouldn't have to explain that. A very smart child, Kasey had skipped several grades and graduated from college at 12. From there she went to her local college, University of Wisconsin- Green Bay where she graduated with a Chemistry and Biology degrees and minor and Spanish. Then she moved to the University of Wisconsin- Madison where she went to medical school. Now she was 24 and fresh off three of the most prestigious fellowships into County. "And I heard you double-boarded."

"Triple." She quietly replied, "General surgery, gynecological surgery and gynecology OBGYN and ER."

"ER too?" she had surprised Carter. "I guess I will have to keep that in mind if I need help."

Kasey blushed. She didn't really like making a big deal out of her situation. She didn't do it to impress anyone or to earn more money, she did it because she was curious she wanted to help multiple people and she had the time to do it. "Medicine is very interesting." She replied

"What does your significant other think of all this?" Carter asked with a huge smile.

"Ah, there isn't one. And there hasn't been." Kasey embarrassedly replied.

"I'm sorry to hear that." He replied, "Working with this group you'll probably quickly find out that County cost me my marriage, so I know what you mean."

Shocked that he had admitted it, Kasey figured that Country may just be a friendlier place than she anticipated and as he said, she may find that out anyway. "A friendly group" she teased.

Carter just nodded. "Hope that's not a bad thing."

Shaking her head, Kasey replied, "Not at all."

"Well, I'm going to go make appearances. Nice to meet you Kasey and I'll see you."

"Nice to meet you too."

Once Carter left, Kasey made her way to get some punch. That was the bad thing about relocating- Kasey didn't know or recognize anyone. At last until someone shouted, "Kasey!"

Turning around, Kasey was shocked to see Matthew Hayes, her best friend during medical school. Since they had graduated from UW-Madison, they had lost touch. "Matty?" she cheered, running over and giving him a huge hug.

"Kasey, what are you doing here?" he excitedly asked, "I haven't seen you in, what, three years."

"Something like that." Kasey answered.

"How have you been? I see that you are as shy as always." Matt replied.

Blushing, Kasey replied, "Yeah, I know. What can I say- people my age think I'm way too smart- a smart ass. People older than me are annoyed that I am so young and know more than them."

"Ah well." Matt laughed in reply.

"So you meet a lot of the people around here?" Kasey asked him.

"Some." Matt replied, "Let's see if I can remember." He pointed first to a couple on the far side of the room. "That is Dr. Luca Kovac and his wife Abby. Luca worked here for a while, Abby was an OB nurse, then a med student, then a doctor. They moved to Boston for a while, but now they are back. That is Neela Rasgotra, the head of surgery. She was dating that one, Dr. Ray Barnett, but when they moved from Baton Rouge something happened and they broke up. That is Dr. Susan Lewis; she went to medical school here, left, came back and was even chief for a while."

"Wow. Is there anyone new here or has everyone worked here before" Kasey teased.

"Not too many." Matthew chuckled in reply. "We are just going to learn to have to fit in."

"Yeah." Kasey replied. "We're the new kids on the block."


End file.
